1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system to display location information about an object on a display device. More particular, the invention relates to a mobile or fixed device that sends information to a location content provider that can relay the information to a digital television, information service provider, or other service provider that can send the information to a customer.
2. Description of the Related Art
The prior art relates to systems that track and report on objects or assets. These systems referred to as location content systems or automatic vehicle location systems require a great deal of equipment. To use a location content system, the user often must purchase and learn to use computers to track the assets, GIS systems to display the position of the assets, software to process the data received, and the communication component to receive data from the assets. These systems are expensive and difficult to use.
More recent systems have been sending analog visual representations of asset locations to cable television subscribers. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,744,825 to Reynolds describes a system to send information about an item to a cable television provider. The cable television provider creates a visual representation of the information. The visual representation is a frame overlay of a map and an icon of the item placed over the map and shows the item's position. This frame overlay is transmitted to the cable subscriber and displayed on their television. Unfortunately, this system requires the cable company to purchase and integrate a GIS system into their cable television broadcast system. In addition, the frame overlay method will not work in a digital television system. The prior art system also only provides this service to the specific cable television provider and can not incorporate other digital television service providers.
Another recent prior art system uses the telephone company to send the item information to a recipient. As described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,174, the tracking system sends the item information to the phone company, which relays the information to a cable set-top box. The cable set-top box interprets the information and displays it on the television. This system requires a telephone company to integrate a television broadcast system into the phone system. Essentially, a telephone company must produce the frames of video used in the display. Again, the telephone company, like the cable company, must operate an AVL system. Also, this prior art system only works with the specific telephone company.
There is a need to allow a display system to work with numerous service providers and numerous assets without burdening the service providers with using GIS systems. These and other problems are solved by the present invention.